I WANT IT NOW

07.02.13

Study: Refined Carbs Are Like Drugs

Mark Lennihan/AP

Does this mean there will be a show called Intervention for Carb Addicts? A recent study by The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has found that the brain’s reaction to refined carbohydrates such as corn syrup is similar to the one that drug addicts experience when they are craving drugs. The quick spike and subsequent crash in blood sugar that comes from eating the highly processed carbs is similar to what happens when you take drugs. “The problem is when the modern, highly processed carbohydrates can hijack the highly evolutionarily based rewards system, putting it, in effect, in overdrive,” said study co-author David Ludwig. “To put it simply, we didn’t evolve to eat low-fat Twinkies for breakfast.”